Cocaine use in Amsterdam in non deviant subcultures

Abstract

Cocaine use was studied in Amsterdam among experienced users not drawn from biased populations of treatment clients, prison inmates, or prostitutes, but from the much larger pool of community based cocaine users. Cocaine use was studied in two samples, 160 in 1987 and 108 in 1991, recruited using snowball sampling techniques. Sixty-four of the 1987 respondents were also reinterviewed in 1991. Data gathered in these three investigations primarily focus on the effects and consequences of cocaine use, circumstances of use, development of level of use, and rules applied to cocaine use in general. The largest single group of users (50%) never exceed a low use level (less than .5 grams a week). About one in five progress to a high use level of 2.5 grams a week or more during their top period of use. Sustained high level use is rare. There are clear indications that experienced cocaine users tend to diminish their use over time, lace it with periods of abstention, and adjust it primarily to social functions. Negative effects are prevented by a series of rules surrounding use, although no user escapes the occurrence of negative effects altogether. In Amsterdam we studied cocaine use in three different projects between 1987 and 1991. Our first study in 1987 consisted of 160 in depth interviews with experienced users (Cohen 1989). In the second study we interviewed 64 of these four years later in 1991 (Cohen and Sas 1993). Also in 1991 we interviewed 108 ‘new users’ with the same interview instrument as in 1987. New users were those who started regular use after 1986 (Cohen and Sas 1994, forthcoming). In the following contribution we will first explain the methodological design of these studies, and then some of the major outcomes. * With gratitude to Ernest Drucker, Ph.D. (New York), Harm ’t Hart, Ph.D. (Utrecht) and Lana Harrison Ph.D. (Washington) for their helpful remarks on an earlier version of this paper. Peter Cohen & Arjan Sas